“The Department of Planning and Investment should become a support center to handle difficulties of foreign investors”

(Baonghean) - Haivina Garment Company was established in 1987. The main company is located in Seoul, the capital of Korea, with 100 employees. As soon as it was established, the company invested in the Chinese market. In 2005, it shifted production to Vietnam. In 2005, the first factory was established in Nam Sach and in 2007, the second factory was established in Gia Loc (Hai Duong province). In 2011, the company established the third factory in Nghe An province.

The first factory has 1,500 workers, the second factory has 3,500 workers and the third factory currently has 2,600 workers. Our plan for the third factory Haivina Kim Lien (Nghe An) is to operate by the end of 2013 with a total of 3,000 workers. The export turnover of 2013 will be 120 million USD (an increase of 20 million USD compared to 2012). The reason we came to Nghe An is because: For the first and second factories in Hai Duong, being close to Hanoi and Hai Phong is very convenient but it is difficult to recruit workers. Moreover, in this area, the minimum wage is classified as zone 2 and zone 3. In the process of finding a location to invest in building the third factory, we visited Nghe An at the end of 2010 - at that time there were no foreign investors in the area.

We evaluate the environment of Nghe An province, which has the advantage of being the largest province and has a large population, and the minimum wage of the region is divided into region 4. These are characteristics that are very suitable for the nature of the textile industry and can easily recruit a large number of workers with suitable salaries, so we chose Nghe An to build the third factory. A very pleasant story that we will always remember is: In 2011, when the company was building the factory, Nghe An province supported us to be able to temporarily rent a school gymnasium for production.

Although the region is mainly based on agriculture, there are also many human resources trained with high educational levels. Therefore, although the region is applied with the minimum wage of region 4, Haivina Company has applied the minimum wage of region 3 to pay workers. Moreover, in Nghe An, there is the Vietnam - Korea Industrial Technical Vocational College, so it can use many workers who know Korean, electricians, welders...

What we want to discuss and recommend to Nghe An province is the need to invest in building infrastructure for sidewalks in industrial parks, water supply and drainage, environment... We hope to be provided with a stable and high-speed internet service to communicate with foreign customers as well as with the main company in Korea. The Fire Police and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment comply with Vietnamese law, helping foreign enterprises apply the same standards as Vietnamese companies. Help us reduce shipping costs or domestic transportation costs to Hai Phong Port. Help us in providing information on the situation of raw material factories.

The Department of Planning and Investment should become a support center to handle difficulties of foreign investors.

PV